Author Archives: Sam Allen

UCLA football players and coaches have started to notice the pattern.

UCLA coaches sent a simple and clear message to football players during the two weeks since the team’s last loss.
“It’s our job as leaders to always keep a challenge in front of them,” defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker said. “All we can ask these kids to do is fight.”

The UCLA defense knows Oregon State tailback Jacquizz Rodgers can be hard to tackle.

The details come back slowly for Larry Atkins. Ten years later, it is hard to remember every moment, every discussion.

News of the meeting spread in whispers to a small group of UCLA football players. Even to those who heard, it seemed mysterious.

It looks like the UCLA football team will finish another year looking up. Another season will pass with the Bruins still beneath the Pac-10 elite, and the team will begin yet another offseason thinking about the steps it must take to reach that level.

Last weekend three of the Bruins’ senior veterans ““ point guard Darren Collison, guard Josh Shipp and forward/center Alfred Aboya ““ introduced the team’s five incoming freshmen to the tenacious pace of UCLA practices.